Introduction to "Making evidence-based decisions in reproductive health: a training course"
Since the launch of The WHO Reproductive Health Library (RHL) in 1997, RHL editors and colleagues from RHL partner institutions have been conducting workshops and other training activities to promote and facilitate use of the information contained in RHL for improving clinical decisions. The ultimate aim of these activities has been to enable health-care workers and policy-makers to use evidence-based practices for sexual and reproductive health care in under-resourced settings.
In 2001, the WHO Department of Reproductive Health and Research at WHO Headquarters collaborated with the Division of Family and Reproductive Health at the WHO Regional Office for Africa to develop a training course on evidence-based decision-making in reproductive health. The aim of this initiative was to create a critical mass of individuals who could critically appraise published scientific literature and use RHL efficiently for evidence-based clinical decision-making in Africa. The course materials were developed primarily by the South African Cochrane Centre in Cape Town, South Africa, with contributions from WHO and regional experts.
In this four-day course, the first three days are reserved for evidence-based medicine and how to use RHL. The fourth day is spent on training participants how to conduct and facilitate this course for others. All the materials for the course are included in here with the exception of a board-game, which is not available at the present time in electronic format; work is under way to develop an electronic version of the game. WHO regards the course materials as dynamic. It is anticipated that the materials and the course itself will be revised and improved as more experience is gained. To view the "Course overview" and "Facilitator's manual", click the links under "Related documents".
The original PowerPoint presentation files for this course are available from the WHO. To obtain these files, please write to:
The WHO Reproductive Health Library
Department of Reproductive Health and Research
World Health Organization
1211 Geneva
Switzerland
E-mail: rhl@who.int